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Hester Prynne Is The Worst Sinner In The Scarlet Letter

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Hester Prynne, the Worst Sinner Three different people, all with different stories but all have something in common; they’re all sinners but the question is who is the biggest sinner? In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many characters are portrayed as sinners like Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth. But overall the biggest sinner in the story was Hester Prynne and there are many reasons for it. Obviously the reason for the scarlet letter, she was an adulteress. Hester caused many problems with people in the town including the most holy man Dimmesdale and a man that should've never been involved, Chillingworth. Hester is the biggest sinner throughout the romance and there is no reason to believe that Dimmesdale, or Chillingworth is. One main reason why Hester was the biggest sinner was because she was an adulteress to begin with. Toward the beginning of the book, the townspeople had accused her of having a baby with another man because the husband was nowhere to be seen. This is important because it ties into many other reasons as to why she is the biggest sinner. Because of this, she gets Dimmesdale involved and Chillingworth who we short after find out is Hester's husband. Everything from here begins to get even worse because of Hester and her actions. Hester never …show more content…

She has by far done the most sinful things and exceeded both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. She had a baby with another man while she was married and never told the man she had the baby with about it. She never even wanted to be in a relationship with Chillingworth, but married him anyway and said it was her worst mistake. She kept the secret of who the real father was from Dimmesdale thinking it was the best decision to make, but it wasn't, Dimmesdale ended up dying from all of the hateful sin building up in his chest. So there is no reason to believe Dimmesdale or Chillingworth is the worst sinner because Hester clearly

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Hester wants to reveal the secret, but Chillingworth wants to keep it concealed in order to torture Dimmesdale even more (Hawthorne, 1994, pp. 118-119). This shows the devious aspect of his character. The association between Chillingworth and Hester transitions from a professional to personal relationship as the truth of Chillingworth’s real intentions comes to the

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Chillingworth came to Boston to dig up who impregnated Hester. He seemed to have very little interest in Hester, his main goal was to find out the truth about Pearl’s father. As he does this, he twists the mind of Reverend Dimmesdale and becomes toxic. He becomes obsessed with trying to get vengeance on Dimmesdale for impregnating Hester. As the years go on, even the physical

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They both attempt to put plans to action that are hateful and deceitful, Abigail with trying to curse Elizabeth, and Chillingworth with torturing Dimmesdale. However, Abigail is jealous of elizabeth for getting to keep John, while Chillingsworth is angry at dimmesdale for having the affair. Throughout both stories the two characters are both act evil but it has come from their

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So on one note who could really blame Hester for having an affair. Until Roger came back into town she did not know is was an affair because she assumed her husband Roger Chillingworth had died. After some time Chillingworth connected the dots and he knew who the father was to Hester's young child, Pearl. When Chillingworth first came back he became Dimmesdale's Physician because he suspected it was Dimmsdale the Minister of the town.

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Throughout the book Chillingworth reminds Hester of her wrong doing an example of this is when the novel states, “As he spoke, he laid his long forefinger on the scarlet letter, which forthwith seemed to scorch into Hester’s breast, as if it had been red-hot. ”(Hawthorne 64) Chillingworth's efforts to please himself by making Hester feel guilty for her actions during his absence sways the way many things happen in the book, like at the end when he decides to join the voyage that Dimmesdale and Hester planned to escape

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Ironically, his desire to punish Hester’s partner ultimately leads to his self destruction as a result of his obsession with seeking revenge to protect his pride. In a sense, Chillingworth’s fated downfall is used to highlight Hester’s strength and courage through their dramatic

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We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.

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Punishment of Puritans for their sins occurred harshly and frequently, and these punishments ranged from fines, branding, and severe whippings to hanging and death. Many of these penalties involved public humiliation of some kind, which made it extremely difficult for townspeople to accept by their peers after they had sinned. Because the Puritans believed religion was immensely important, the community was often reluctant to allow citizens that exhibited sinful behavior to achieve redemption (Cox). However, in the case of Hester Prynne, an adulterer in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter, the townspeople eagerly made amends with her. This novel narrates the life of Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and courageously accepted the repercussions

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Hester makes most of the sin. Hester and Dimmesdale can be compared and contrasted in the way they handled their scarlet letters. While Hester is stubborn, Dimmesdale is extremely cautious. Hester and Dimmesdale both committed a sin and were affected by that sin greatly. Additionally, keeping a secret from others can be a sneaky task and may turn out bad for an individual.

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Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne exposes the blindness of the Puritan people through the treatment of Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale’s external characters. Hester Prynne is labeled as an adulteress and mistreated by society because of their unwillingness to see her true character. Chillingworth, the husband of Hester, leads the town to believe he is an honorable man and skillful doctor, when his true intents root from his vindictive nature Finally, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester’s lover and the father of her baby, acts as the perfect man therefore the town views him as an exemplar model, while he is truly a sinner. In the novel, Hawthorne portrays Hester as a strong, resilient woman, though the members of her community

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He was held above the rest, and this is proven in one of the first scenes of the book. As Hester is above the townspeople on a scaffold, Dimmesdale, Governor Wilson, and others are still above her. But, as the reader soon discovers, Arthur Dimmesdale is his own worst enemy. It is unknown until the end but he is actually the father of Hester’s child. He hates himself and often inflicts physical pain on himself. "

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Hester and Dimmesdale each are equivalent in the sin that they commit, but their lives and fates are different because Hester had to repent for her crimes while Dimmesdale bottled up his guilt inside. The indirect result of Dimmesdale’s concealment of the truth was Chillingworth’s torture, which played a large role in Dimmesdale’s untimely death. Chillingworth snapped when Hester did not reveal Dimmesdale’s crimes. Hester, in part, helped Dimmesdale in

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480 Words | 2 Pages

One major difference between the sins was that Chillingworth’s sin was directed to hurt and pain another person. Dimmesdale simply committed adultery out of passion and love for another. Dimmesdale also felt an immense amount of guilt and pain for the sin he did. Chillingworth felt no guilt for what he was doing to Dimmesdale and sinned time after time again, eventually leading Dimmesdale to kill himself. This showed how much more serious the sin Chillingworth committed was in the story (“Who”)

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Throughout the novel, Hester is fraught by the Puritan society and her suffering is an effect of how evil society is. Hester continues to believe that the crime she committed was not wrong and she should not be punished for it. Her desire to protect and love Dimmesdale, turn her into a stronger person and become a heroine in the book. Although society still views her as a “naughty baggage” (Hawthorne 73) and is punished for her wrongdoing, Hester never thought to take revenge on them, yet she gives everything she has to the unfortunate and leaves herself with very little. She continues to stay positive no matter what society has for her.

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In the novel, “The Scarlet Letter”, Hester Pyrnne is the main character in the book. Hester commits a crime of Adultery while she was married, Hester must wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life. All throughout the book the characters try to figure out whom Hester committed the crime with. Is Hester a winner, sinner, victim, or object? I believe that Hester is a sinner.

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